UPDATE: May 8, 2017, 5:30PM ET: Chanel has released a statement addressing the commonalities between the two pairs of shoes. "Although these two shoe models share a common feature - the column heel - the design and aesthetics of the column, in addition to the design of the shoe as a whole, are significantly different. This indicates that Greece nourishes and will continue to inspire artists, creative designers, writers and philosophers throughout the world, thanks to its exceptional culture."

As large and prolific as the fashion industry is, sometimes designers can wittingly or unwittingly create pieces that look similar to the work of other designers. And it looks like Dolce & Gabbana and Chanel, two industry heavy-hitters, have designs that some people think resemble each other.

On Thursday, Stefano Gabbana, co-founder of the Italian brand, reposted on his personal Instagram page a photo from account @whodiditfirst showing a side-by-side comparison of a pair of Dolce & Gabbana shoes from 2014 and a pair of Chanel ones from this year. Although the shoes are different colors and have different straps, it's difficult to ignore their major commonality: Both pairs's heels are modeled to look like ancient Greek and Roman Ionic columns.

In his post, Gabbana was careful not to play the blame game. His only addition to the original caption was a handful of heart emojis and "Interessante.... it's just a repost." On Friday, Gabbana reposted an image comparing the work of his house and Vivienne Westwood's, this time to make a mea culpa. "Okay it's true!!! We were stupid and ignorant when we did this!!! We say SORRY to the Genius #viviennewestwood as we pay much attention to her work," he wrote alongside a photo comparing a 2003 Dolce & Gabbana gold necklace reading "SEX" to an extremely similar one by Vivienne Westwood from 1989.

Judging by Gabbana's willingness to admit to his tendency to be a little too inspired by other designers, it's possible he wasn't trying to do anything with his post other than point out the similarities. Maybe it really was "just a repost," like he said. Meanwhile, Chanel head Karl Lagerfeld has yet to respond and Gabbana hasn't said anything more on the topic since those two Instagram posts, so we may never know what kind of reaction, if any, Gabbana was trying to rouse with his post.

One thing is for sure, though. The longer fashion progresses, the longer the list of incidents like these grows. Over the past month, Gucci's creative director was accused of copying the premise of a new video series from a student at London art school Central Saint Martins, and Forever 21 came under fire for a line of clothing that looks very similar to Kanye West's The Life of Pablo tour merch.

But sometimes, as may be the case with Dolce & Gabbana and Chanel, such similarities are just a coincidence.